


saccharine sabotage

by pilynator



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Disordered Eating, err on the side of caution if that is upsetting to you, friendship fic, mentions of diet/nutrition/other food stuff, set during the tail end of his route, while setting up the press conference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-10
Packaged: 2019-05-20 09:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pilynator/pseuds/pilynator
Summary: Saeran is being cared for and doesn't know how to react. The one where Jumin intervenes and Jaehee relents.For Saeran Week 2018Day 5: Flowers ||Sweets





	saccharine sabotage

**Author's Note:**

> It's time for Jumin and Jaehee to go on a life changing field trip with Saeran.
> 
> Not really. But they do get to bond. I felt bad for not having enough time to include some J&J content in the day 1 fic lmao so this is making up for that grievous error.
> 
> Enjoy~

i.

‘I’m worried about your health.’

Saeran’s head shot up from the pile of papers he was currently annotating and stared, bleary eyed, at the imposing figure of Jumin Han. He was currently hovering in the doorway to his temporary office looking thoughtful. It took a while for the words to register through the haze of exhaustion. It then took him a while to sort through his admittedly short experience of people caring for him to figure out the appropriate response to this. Jumin’s eyes never left him. He seemed to be evaluating him on something.

He wasn’t wrong, Saeran had to admit. He had been feeling awful, but there hadn’t really been any time to rest after the escape from Mint Eye. He’d been propelled by pure adrenaline through the better bulk of the past week and his body had been protesting the treatment. Jumin had a point, he’d been feeling even more run down than usual and the documents V had collected on his father were…less than savoury. They were horrible, actually. Saeran found himself needing to take frequent breaks from them or he started to get jittery. He needed to do this by himself, though. For his own peace of mind.

‘Don’t worry, I’m used to much worse.’

Saeran didn’t miss the way Jumin’s expression flickered briefly between shocked and calm again. It was hard to remember that everyone had thought the Savi…Rika to be a different person up until a couple of days ago. He gave the other man a look that he hoped conveyed his absolute health and cheerfulness.

‘That’s not what I meant,’ Jumin said, his voice a lot softer than before. He eyed the massive pile of file on Saeran’s left and the considerably thinner stack in the box marked as DONE. ‘Although I should have considered your workload more carefully. I will send over more staff to assist you.’ When Saeran opened his mouth to protest, he raised his hand to stop him. ‘I won’t hear anything on this point. I understand that you’re worried about the confidentiality of the…material, so I’ll send Assistant Kang over later this afternoon to start with. You trust her with this, yes?’

‘She’s RFA,’ Saeran said simply, as if that explained everything that needed to be said.

Jumin nodded.

‘Good, glad that’s sorted. We’ll work out the rest of staff once she’s had a chance to go through everything with you. Now, with that out of the way, I want to talk about my other concern. Your diet.’

‘My diet? What’s wrong with my diet?’ There was a loaded pause in which Jumin turned his eyes to the bin next to his desk. Saeran followed his lead and frowned.

‘I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.’

Jumin sighed and made a wide gesture that encompassed the mess of candy wrappers and chocolate bar bags peeking over the lip of the bin.

‘This. The unhealthy snacks. Saeran Choi, you’re already working hard enough on no sleep at all. You need a balanced and healthy diet to tide you over or else you’ll run into a wall. I’ll assign one of my personal chefs to you and make sure your health doesn’t decline any further.’

‘The brain feeds on sugar,’ Saeran pointed out and was surprised to find that he sounded testy even to himself. The sleeplessness must have been chipping away at his self-control reserves. ‘I need it.’

‘Maybe so,’ Jumin conceded. He didn’t look convinced, though. ‘But the rest of you needs something more consistent than three chocolate bars and a bag of candy. I’ll instruct my nutritionist to prepare a meal plan for you and inform the cafeteria staff about your requirements.’ Saeran opened his mouth to protest and found himself shushed for the second time in the span of three minutes. ‘I wouldn’t normally impose on you like this, but please understand that I am concerned. You’ve had almost no time to recover and we are dealing with an incredibly complicated situation. I can’t let you self-destruct like this. And besides,’ Jumin smiled gently, ‘MC would have my head if anything happened to you.’

‘Can I still have some candy, though?’ Saeran let a hopeful note enter his voice. ‘If I eat healthy, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?’

Jumin nodded and he felt like he could breathe again.

‘Of course. As long as it’s within the recommended daily amounts.’

Something about that made dread grip at his insides. He tried to keep his voice as casual as possible.

‘Oh. I see. How…how much is this recommended amount?’

‘About 40g a day.’

And that was that. Jumin left, leaving Saeran to stare at the floor in shock at the result of his calculations.

* * *

 ii.

‘Is he always like this?’

Jaehee looked up at a despondent-looking Saeran. He was rattled. His hair was normally very neat, but he’d been combing his hand through it a lot over the past couple of hours and it was currently sticking up and beginning to curl slightly at the roots. It was to be expected, given that he and Seve…Saeyoung were twins, but it was still uncanny to see it in person. The longer the day went on, the less energy he seemed to have for being tense, and the more the similarities started to shine through.

She made a small humming noise in acknowledgement.

‘Like what?’

Saeran looked thoughtful for a while, tapping a rapid rhythm onto the edge of the desk they were sharing. Not for the first time since she’d met him, Jaehee found that he displayed an odd mix of confidence and occasionally debilitating insecurity, unflinchingly polite but also decisive and blunt to the point of rudeness whenever he was working on something. As soon as that would be over, he’d default to chronic apprehension and a practiced stiffness. Today felt like an odd in-between; a pupal stage.

‘Strict,’ he finally said. ‘He’s very strict.’

Ah. Jaehee allowed herself a small knowing smile at that.

‘Mm, I know it might be hard to see it like that, but Mr. Han is only looking out for you.’

Saeran sighed and let his head rest on the documents in front of him. He wasn’t exactly a health icon to begin with, but the last week had not done anything to help him. Jaehee felt a pang of sympathy at his obvious burnout. It felt familiar in an uncomfortable way.

‘I know.’ He didn’t sound pleased about it. ‘I know he is. I just…I was so happy to be out of that place and make decisions and one of those decisions was to eat as much candy as possible.’ He made a paperclip give a small flip with a flick of his index finger. ‘I don’t think it’s fair that he went over my head like this, even if he is right.’

Jaehee put her pen down and took off her glasses, trying to rub the sleepiness away. The lack of sleep was starting to catch up with her.

‘Well,’ she started cautiously, ‘this is just my opinion as his assistant, but I think Mr. Han tends to, uh, conflate restraints and affection. He takes care of others by taking the bad option away from them.’ She reached out to pat him on the head, remembered that he absolutely hated unprompted contact, and let her hand fall to her phone and absentmindedly open the RFA app to check for updates. ‘I understand why you might be uncomfortable, but I hope you won’t judge him too harshly.’

Saeran’s eyes swivelled to focus on her. It was a strange experience every time he did it. It wasn’t just the unusual colour, but he was always so intently focused on whatever had his attention that it was disconcerting if it went on for too long. Saeran Choi could stare down a wild animal and win.

‘I won’t.’ He seemed resigned to his fate of low fat, sugar-free meals. ‘I wish I had some kind of stimulant on me now, though. I’m sure I could fall asleep right here and now and I’m not allowed sugar or caffeine pills anymore.’

Jaehee stretched and felt the bones in her back pop. It _had_ been a long time they were sat there.

‘We could go get some actual coffee. There’s a chain nearby. It’s not the best, but it’s serviceable and –' an idea was starting to form ‘– they make very large mochas. Lots of whipped cream, lots of sugar, a ton of cinnamon. They even add in some chocolate sticks in there if you ask them.’

Saeran shot up in his seat.

‘But…’ He looked nervous. ‘The nutrition plan said –’

‘Well, _technically_ , the plan only concerns food items. Food items made and consumed on C&R property. The mocha is a hot drink we’re going to get a couple of streets away from here.’ Jaehee smiled warmly at him and was met with the most earnest expression she’d seen in her life.

‘Jaehee Kang! You’re a genius! No –’ his eyes went wide ‘—an angel!’ The sheer excitement at that had shaved off a couple of years off his face. Saeran looked incredibly young and incredibly eager. He was practically bouncing in his seat at the prospect and Jaehee was sure he was going to end up trying to get multiples if she didn’t keep an eye on him. Saeran was normally slow and deliberate when eating actual food and he struggled to finish anything, but he practically inhaled sweets, almost like he was afraid someone was going to come in and snatch them away.

She burst out laughing.

‘Oh, I don’t know about that. I’m just a regular assistant taking a very important C&R guest on a business lunch.’

She stood up and grabbed her coat.

‘Now come on. If we get in before 2pm we can catch the barista who likes to make little cinnamon cats on your drink.’

Saeran was out the door before she’d even had a chance to finish that sentence.


End file.
